One of my favorites, Zee Edgell’s Beka Lamb, has been translated into Spanish by Teresa Bailach and will be published by Plasson & Bartleboom very soon (October 10, 2025)!
Description: Subtle yet rich descriptions of culture, society, and family life in Belize adorn Zee Edgell’s beautifully narrated story of a short time in the life of 14-year-old Beka Lamb. Through flashbacks, points on politics and independence are animated, since the political struggles for independence in Belize reflect Beka’s own developing maturity and need to assert herself. Two main features of this heartwarming story are Beka’s penchant for lying and her relationship with her older friend Troycie, whose troubling choices lead her down a self-destructive path. The pride of winning an essay contest at her convent school releases Beka’s grief over Troycie and empowers her to embrace the next phase of her life.
Zee Edgell: Acclaimed writer, women’s rights advocate, journalist, and educator, Zelma (Zee) Inez Edgell was born in Belize City, Belize in 1940. Zee Edgell holds an undergraduate degree in journalism from Polytechnic-Regent Street (now the University of Westminster) and a Master’s in Liberal Studies from Kent State University. Edgell has published four novels and several short stories throughout her illustrious career. Her breakout novel, Beka Lamb, published in 1982, was the first book to be released in a newly independent Belize (formerly British Honduras) and would gain international notoriety going on to win the Fawcett Society Book Prize. Before becoming a celebrated novelist Edgell spent her early years working as a journalist, first for Jamaica’s The Daily Gleaner and then as founding editor of the Belize-based newspaper The Reporter. [. . .] Edgell would spend the remainder of her teaching career as a tenured professor in the English department at Ohio’s Kent State University beginning in 1992. While at Kent State, Edgell taught courses in creative writing, fiction writing, and post-colonial literature. In 2009, Edgell received an honorary doctorate in literature from the University of West Indies. [. . .]
Read full bio at http://scua.library.umass.edu/edgell-zee/
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One of my favorites, Zee Edgell’s Beka Lamb, has been translated into Spanish by Teresa Bailach and will be published by Plasson & Bartleboom very soon (October 10, 2025)! Description: Subtle yet rich descriptions of culture, society, and family life in Belize adorn Zee Edgell’s beautifully narrated story of a short time in the life